



■ / 



^i'7 



A DISCOURSE 






DEATH OF PEESIDENT LINCOLN 

PELlVERKri IX / 

ST. MARK'S METHODIST EPISCORAL CHURCH, 

AND REPEATKII ( liV REQUEST) AT THE 

LAFAYETTE ST. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
Buffalo, April 23, 1863. 



By REY. J. B. WENTWORTII, D. D. 

. Of the Genesee Conference. 



BUFFALO : 

PRINTING HOUSE OF MATTHEWS & WAREEN, 

Office of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. 

1865. 



A DISCOURSE 



DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN 



DELIVERED IN 



ST. MARK'S METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 



AND EEPEATED (BY REQUEST) AT THE 



LAFAYETTE ST. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



Buffalo, April 23, 1863. 



By REY. J. B. WEIsTTWORTII, D. D. 

Of the Genesee Conference. 



BUFFALO: 
PRINTING HOUSE OF MATTHEWS & WAEREN, 

Office of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. 

1865. 



DISCOUESE. 



Text. — There is a prince and a great man fallen. — 2 Sam. 3: 38. 

As a church and congregation we dedicate this morning's ser- 
vices to a commemoration of the Life and Death of Abraham 
Lincoln, late President of this Republic, who, on the 15th day 
of this present month, finished a glorious career on earth to en- 
ter, as we trust, upon a still more glorious one in heaven. 

When bereaved affection has so far recovered from the stupi- 
fying shock occasioned by the death of its beloved object, as to 
find vent in tears and words, it naturally gives expression to 
itself in strains of solemn eulogy. The memory of the dear 
departed becomes sacred in the estimation of surviving friends; 
the whole past life of the deceased becomes elevated, purified and 
ennobled, and no language seems appropriate which is not em- 
ployed in depicting his virtues. That " nothing but good should 
be spoken of the dead," is a maxim derived from and sanctioned 
by the tenderest and holiest instincts of the human heart. 

And were this not prompted by the feelings we have been 
wont to cherish towards the subject of this funeral discourse, we 
would yet be practically compelled to adopt and act upon it in 
what we have to say of his character and career. For, could we 
speak of our late Chief Magistrate in the exercise of calm, cool, 



6 

critical judgments, uninfluenced by our personal grief, and un- 
swayed by the general sorrow, we should be unable to use any 
other language than that of eulogy, — we could say nothing of 
him but good : for his character was compounded of virtues, and 
his life singidarly free from blemishes. 

But who can approach and discourse upon this tlieme, in this 
sad hour, with calmness and collectedncss of mind, and do exact 
and impartial justice to the nation's departed chief. I must con- 
fess this to be impossible to myself, at this time: nor do I now 
l^ropose to attemj^t any such impossible task. Though a week 
and more has passed since the aiDpalling news of his death reached 
us, we have not yet recovered from the stunning and stupifying 
blow that intelligence gave us. We have not yet been able to 
collect our thoughts, and reflect with composure upon this sad 
event. It came upon us so unexpectedly, that we can hardly as 
yet realize the fact, or appreciate the magnitude of our own and 
the nation's loss. We had scarcely anticipated even the possi- 
bility of Mr. Lincoln's death. It seemed to us that God would 
protect and preserve the life of him wliom the people had chosen, 
in preference to all others, as our chief ruler in this period of 
national peril. As we felt confident that God is the friend of 
our nation, and will bring us safely through all our civil troubles, 
we believed that He would surely watch over and defend the 
man upon whom the hopes of the country were centered, and 
whose life seemed so essential to the well-being of the Reijublic. 
And we have not yet rallied from the shock of so sudden and 
unexpected a bereavement. 

We are, moreover, appalled and horrified at the manner of 
his " taking ofl"." Had he fallen by the hand of disease, and not 
by the hand of the assassin, we could sooner bring our minds 
to think with calmness upon the sad event, and more dispassion- 
ately consider the probable consequences which will flow here- 



from. Horror, indignation, and an apprehensive fear of similar 
calamities in the immediate future, mingle with our sorrows, fill 
our minds with perturbations, and add to the perplexity and con- 
fusion of our thoughts. 

But, were all these exciting and appalling surroimdings of the 
President's death removed, and we permitted with ordinary com- 
posure of feeling to approach this subject, we could not, even then, 
do anything like justice to the character and .services of Mr. Lin- 
coln, nor appreciate the nature and extent of the national be- 
reavement. The deplorable event is too recent to admit of this. 
Some Bancroft or Macauley, who shall rise up in the coming age, 
will be alone competent to this great imdertaking. Influenced 
as we must necessarily be by our prejudices, living as we do in 
the midst of the scenes in which the late President took so dis- 
tinguished a part, and the efiects of the policy and measures 
which he introduced not having yet fully apjieared, how are we 
prepared to render adequate praise to the memory of the man 
who, during the terrible four years last past, has stood at the 
helm of state ? More than one generation must pass away be- 
fore any just computation can be made of the debt of gratitude 
the nation owes to Abraham Lincoln. The far-oif future can 
alone furnish the data upon which to base such a computation. 

But even now our grief requires appropriate expression. We 
must gratify the demands of sorrowing aiiection and respect for 
the great departed, by an attempted rehearsal, however imper- 
fect, of his virtues, and by paying our meed of praise to his 
memory for the blessings and benefits which we are now able 
to see that he, under God, was the means of bestowing upon 
our bleeding and distracted country. 

Even this is a saddening and melancholy gratification. For, 
hereby, we are made still more conscious of the loss which in 
his death we and the nation have sustained: and our sense of 



8 

this is already overwhelming. As, therefore, we enter upon the 
performance of this melancholy duty, and undertake to meet 
the demands of the hour, we look to God, and implore his sjie- 
cial assistance, support and guidance. Our hope and trust, O 
God, we would place more implicitly in Thee, as we behold the 
strongest human pilhir of the government removed. . 

In the remarks I have on this occasion to offer, I shall not 
speak of Mr, Lincoln as he was or might have been independ- 
ently of his official character and relations. Though it might 
be proper, and even instructive, to begin with his early life and 
trace up his history to the time Avhen he was called by the 
Pcoj^le to occupy the Presidential chair, and note the influences 
brought to bear upon him and the formative processes through 
which he passed to fit him for that high seat of honor, neither 
jjresent circumstances, nor the feelings of our hearts, make such 
biographical research necessary. We do not wish to consider 
him apart from the executive office which he filled and honored. 
It was only as President that he became fully known to the na- 
tion and beloved by the People. Prior to the commencement 
of his presidential career, there were many of our public men 
who filled a larger place in the popular vision. We learned to 
appreciate and admire him especially as our Chief Magistrate; 
and, as such, we now esj^ecially mourn his untimely end. Should 
we leave out of account the record of his official career, scarce 
any data would remain from which to make up an estimate of 
his personal qualities. To undertake to discriminate between 
/ Abraham Lincoln the man and Abraham Lincoln the President, 
/l^ while under present circumstancesi-would be an uncalled-for and 
/ ^ useless task | ^would, at the best, be almost hopeless and impos- 
sible. The two are indissolubly blended, and are now wedded 
together forever by the martyr-death visited upon the man be- 
cause he was President. Henceforth Ave shall never think or 



9 

speak of him but as the nation's murdered chief, — the Saviour 
and second Father of his country. He gave all there was of 
himself to the nation; and the nation has already accepted the 
entire gift, and will forever claim his whole being and nature as 
its own. He now, in the entirety of his character, lies enshrined 
in the nation's heart. The nation's matchless history during the 
last four years will evermore remain as his biography and epi- 
taph; and tlie Republic saved, and the Union restored, shall, 
through all time, be his monument. 

Though we may not separate Abraham Lincoln the man from 
Abraham Lincoln tlie President, yet we do lose sight of the man 
in the President. No man, in the whole list of his predecessors, 
brought to that office so much individuality of character, nor ex- 
ercised its functions with so complete a maintenance of his indi- 
viduality, as he. All his state papers, all his official utterances, 
the whole policy of his administration and the manner of its ex- 
ecution, bear the unmistakable stamp of his own original genius 
and unique character. His personal character shone forth in all 
that he said and did in the discharge of his execiitive duties; 
and he succeeded in more fully infusing himself into the national 
mind and consciousness, than any of the great men who preceded 
him in the chair of State. The people never enjoyed so clear a 
view of the personal character of any of our Presidents, as of his. 
He stood before the eyes of the nation in the full length of his 
towering form, and every one was permitted to look at him as he 
was. He did not wrap himself in his official robes to conceal him- 
self from the piiblic scrutiny, nor restrain his personal freedom of 
action or of speech by allowing the red-tape of precedent and rou- 
tine to be wound around him. If it shall be alleged that his 
administration was without consistency and unity, from lack of 
any preconceived political theory upon which it was moulded, it 
must be acknowledged that it finds a more glorious unity, a 



10 

grander consistency in his own majestic personality which per- 
meates through it and binds all its parts in one. 

Nor did the strongly marked and determined individuality of 
his character at all disqualify him for the grave responsibilities 
of his high position. Rather did the idiosyncracies of his noble 
nature qualify him to meet and discharge those responsibilities 
all the more successfully. The choice of the people, which fell on 
him, seems to have been directed by the inspiration of God. If 
not born a President, he was at least trained up and disciplined 
and fitted for the pilotage of the Republic during the stormy 
period through which we have passed. God, we may believe, 
had raised liim up and been preparing him for this ygyj thing. 
His very peculiarities made him the more completely adaj^ted to 
the work to Avliich he was called. He was precisely tlie man 
for the crisis. His broad, many-sided and luxuriant nature com- 
pletely filled the office, and made him equal to all its duties. 
The crisis found the man ; and the man proved himself perfect 
master of the situation. He entered ui)on his duties as President, 
and continued to discharge them, as though in the fulfillment of 
a mission for which he had been all his life preparing. 

Abraham Lincoln was a man of colossal proj^ortions, mentally 
as well as physically. A truly great man ; a man to enrich a 
century ; a tall, commanding figure, around whom the historian 
may group the other personages of this era, in giving harmony 
and unity to his descrij^tions. The crises is great ; but he was 
as great as the crisis. Few men of his breadth and largeness of 
soul have appeared on the stage of the world. His was a na- 
ture so broad, so full, so many-sided, that we could all find in 
it some ground of contact, some point of attraction, l>y which 
we might attach ourselves to him and claim him as our own. 

And this is evidenced by the peculiar grief, the sincere sor- 
row, with v\'hich all our hearts are affected in view of his death. 



11 

The public manifestation of grief is not elicited by his assassina- 
tion; nor is it merely ceremonial and decorous — as being actu- 
ated by sentiments of propriety in paymg respect to a departed 
President. The people do not put badges of mourning upon their 
persons, their residences, and their churches, as a mere matter 
of ceremony fitting and appropriate to the occasion. All loyal 
and right-minded citizens are moved with profound grief, with 
deep and heartfelt sorrow at his loss. Somehow we all felt that 
he was a brother and friend to us all. Unconsciously to our- 
selves, we felt a deep personal interest in him, and afiection for 
him. His great soul liad drawn us to him; aud now we mourn 
for him as thougli a Father or a Brother had been taken away 
from us. Only great and noble natures have the power to awaken 
this general personal interest and attachment in the minds of all 
good men. — But it is their prerogative. And herein do we find 
the grand proof and touchstone of genuine greatness. Little na- 
tures, stinted souls, do not gain a strong hold e^'en upon the 
hearts of their associates and iamiliars. A community will part 
with some of its members, whom accident has lifted up and made 
conspicuous, with but little regret or sense of loss. A nation 
sometimes sees with indifference the passing away of many of its 
public men and chief rulers, and deems itself to have paid due 
respect to their memory by cold words of formal eulogy pro- 
nounced over their graves, in which the heart pays no tribute. 
But when a great man, — one whom God has made great, and 
has commissioned to bless the world by his presence and labors 
among men, — is stricken down by death, the good and true of 
all lands in spirit attend his funeral as mourners, and weep over 
his grave as that of a brother. For, truly great men belong to 
the race: they live and labor for humanity, and the whole world 
claims them as its own. And so it is with Abraham Lincoln. 
Not only we, — but the good and virtuous of all nations, will 



12 

feel, as the tidings of his sad end shall reach them, that they 
have lost in him a brother and a friend; and, with us, they will 
see to it that the memory of his name and nobleness " shall grow 
green with years, and blossom in the flight of ages." 

He sprang from lowly parentage, — the source whence the 
world's great men have usually traced their origin. It requires 
a deep, strong soil to sustain and nourish large growths, — the 
rich alluvium of the valley. The tallest and most stately trees 
strike their roots deepest down into the subsoil. For a himian 
soiil to be nursed and nurtured into greatness, it must draw its 
nourishment from the breast of our common humanity. One 
must be brought in contact with the common people, and from 
his youth up feel the pulsations of the great popular heart, in 
order to the education of those broad sympathies and love of all 
things human which characterize all great and noble natures. 
They who are nurtured in aristocratic circles, are usually but hot- 
house productions. Though beautiful, they are not massive; 
though straight and supple, they are not strong and majestic. 
Mr. Lincoln was happily not nurtured amid such surroundings. 
His origin was lowly; and his massive nature found free expan- 
sion and development as he grew up among the common people, 
— sharing in their toils, mingling in their gatherings, sympathiz- 
ing with them in their interests and convictions, and loving them 
for their honest and homely virtues. Thus coming up from the 
humblest social condition, and, in his upward course, making his 
way successively through each stratum into which society is di- 
vided until he reached the summit of human power and glory, — 
not forgetting in his upward career anything that he had learned, 
nor relaxing his hold upon, or afiection for, any class of society 
with which he had previously been connected, he at length be- 
came the man of the whole people: for he had belonged to each 
class; and while he thus understood the views and feelings of 



13 

each, he loved them all. We have had Presidents before who 
worked their way up from humble life through all grades of 
social distinction to the highest; but not one of them had that 
breadth and comixass of large heartedness which enabled him to 
take into his symj^athies and enter into the views and feelings of 
each and every class of American society with which he had thus 
been successively brought into practical contact and connection, 
to the extent that was true of Mr. Lincoln. And hence did he 
draw to himself, and secure the hearty esteem and affection of 
the masses of the loyal people of every grade, occupation, and 
profession. And the instincts of the masses were truer and more 
sagacious, in this instance, than the sharpened intellects of poli- 
ticians. The masses trusted him, while the politicians shook their 
heads ominously, and talked of his inexperience and incompe- 
tency. But never, in all history, have the masses given their 
adhesion to, and confided in, a weak man. When left to them- 
selves, they instinctively and unconsciously, but infallibly, rally 
around and repose their faith in those who are strong in native 
endowments, and equal to the given emergency. 

And when, in 1860, the elements of secession and discord were 
gathering and crystalizing into organized form, and the great 
crisis of our history had well nigh arrived, as if they had pre- 
monitions of the coming storm and whirlwind, with a sagacity 
all the more infidlible for being instinctive, they turned away 
from the crowd of politicians and statesmen who had for lono- 
years engaged the eye and ear of the public, and selected Abra- 
ham Lincoln as the nation's chief The results have justified the 
choice, and furnished another illustration of the wisdom of popu- 
lar elections as a means of designating men for high public 
stations. 

And when about to take the reins of power which the people 
had elected him to hold, all inexperienced as he was, and though 



14 

the clouds of secession fury were already rolling up and covering 
our political heavens, he shows no trepidation, no fear. Calmly 
he steps forth from his quiet Western home, makes the modest 
and touching request of his neighbors and townsmen who gather 
about him to bid hini good-by and God-speed, to remember him 
in their prayers and implore for him divine help to guide the na- 
tion safely through the perils which lie clearly saw impending, and 
with an unfaltering step and unblanched countenance proceeds to 
the national capitol and assumes the dread responsibilities of his 
office. Never before did a human being take upon him such a 
load of trying and complicated duties, the settlement of such mo- 
mentous questions, the bearing such heavy burdens and cares of 
state. — An ordinary man Avould have been overwhelmed and 
crushed at the outset. But so far from being crushed or appalled, 
he is cheerful, hopeful and buoyant in spirit, and bears himself 
as one who is conscious of his strength for the work before him, 
and of his ability to succeed. He speaks words of conciliation 
and kindness to the malcontents, and seeks to dissuade them 
from their desperate undertaking, and with dispassionate calm- 
ness, such as no one but a man of the most marvellous personal 
power and greatness could, in such an hour, have displayed, de- 
clares to them and the whole country, that he shall keep his 
oath of office, — support the constitution and enforce the laws, 
and repossess and hold all forts, arsenals and public property be- 
longing to the Federal Government which the insurgents had 
then seized. The Southern traitors did not tlien appreciate, as 
they have since, the nature of that inflexible resolve so simply 
uttered and in so unimpassioned a style. They were not the 
least shaken in their diabolical purpose, and the war began. You 
know the dreadful story of the last four years of blood and car- 
nao-e. You can call to mind the dark days through which we have 
passed; those seasons of awful peril during this rebellion when 



15 

it seemed that the ship of state was well nigh foundered, and 
about to be engulfed by the yawning waves. There is no need 
that I should recount and describe them: they will never be for- 
gotten by you. And do we not remember, also, when, at those 
times, we turned our anxious eyes to the man at the helm, how 
calm and unmoved he always stood; — with no cloud upon his 
brow, no pallor on his cheek ? He seemed not to regard the 
angry waters which others feared would prove our ruin: his 
longer sight and clearer vision enabled him to descry in the dis- 
tance the cheerful sunlight and a quiet sea. In all the trying- 
exigencies through which we have passed, he was never over- 
whelmed, never confused ; never did he once yield to the weak- 
ness of desj)air. Cool and collected in every emergency, he in 
no instance indulged in any angry or ill-judged utterance; never 
counseled any unwise or violent measure; never adopted any rash 
or hasty expedient. Many times and oft, during this war, have 
our great men and state counsellors been confounded and almost 
given up all for lost. But he never faltered : at such times, like 
another Atlas, lie took the Republic upon his own broad should- 
ers, and carried it safely through. 

Like others of that select class of men of the highest order 
of greatness, to which Mr. Lincoln belonged, he was endowed 
with a most marvellous power of Faith. Many of the world's 
heroes believed in Fate, and were strengthened and sustained by 
the conviction that Fate had marked out for them the achieve- 
ment of a glorious destiny. But Mr. Lincoln's faith was in God 
and his country. And here was the great secret of his strength, 
the hiding of his power. Here we find the explanation of his 
calmness in the midst of dangers before which others quailed. 
Here the reason of the unimpassioned style of his messages and 
proclamations, with which we were so often perplexed, and some- 
times dissatisfied. He seems to have been agitated by no doubts 



16 

himself, and could hardly sympathize with those whose fears in- 
duced des2Dair of the Republic. In all history there is not another 
such example of sublime fjiith and trust. He confided more fully 
in the immutable j^rinciples which underlie our government than 
any of our statesmen. He rested more firmly than any other 
man among us upon divine providence and promise. He showed 
no emotion; for he felt no fear. He made no threats, nor sought 
to awaken any temporary feelings of hope and joy; for he be- 
lieved that God had taken the work in hand, and would bring 
all things out right in the end. 

And his Wisdom was equal to his Faith. As we look back 
now over his administration, we can hardly see how any thing 
could be changed for the better. And the Avisdom of his admin- 
istration is displayed not so much in a settled and inflexible 
policy which he himself had reasoned out and was resolved to 
maintain for the sake of consistency, but in that he watched 
with wonderful sagacity the progress of events, and allowed 
emergencies as they arose to dictate his policy and measures. 
The wisdom of his statesmanship consists in his dutifid waiting 
upon Providence. Some of us complained that he was too fast, 
some that he was too slow. But the results show that he never 
hurried, and never loitered. He waited always for the right 
time and occasion: and his almost faultless practical sagacity 
enabled him to detect them with the utmost precision. Thus 
waiting constantly upon Providence, his own course was almost as 
unerring as that of Providence itself. The measures he proposed 
appeared absolutely demanded by the circumstances, and when 
adopted they became fixed and established beyond all contro- 
versy. In what he did, he seemed to have been the executor of 
Divine purposes; and thus the great acts of his administration 
have already passed into the permanent policy of the govern- 
ment, and will stand forever. Had he been more of an experi- 



17 

enced statesman, with his mind pre-occnjned with theories and 
precedents, he would probably have depended less upon his prac- 
tical sagacity, — would have been a less faithful and obedient 
servant of Providence; and might have managed our aifairs with 
far less skill and success. But, as it was, he had no darling 
theories with which to make experiments, — no ^^et plans to make 
doubtful trial of. His one great, earnest purpose was to save 
the nation and restore the Union, and, for the accomplishment 
of this, he humbly invoked the assistance of Almighty God, and 
then, in a spirit of childlike obedience and trust, he went as fast 
and as far as God opened the way. A less than a transcend- 
ently great man would not have done thus. He would have 
been eager to bring forward his own personal sjiecifics to cure 
the ills of the State; would have been for trying some remedy 
which he himself had devised ; would have sat down at the be- 
ginning and marked out some neat and beautiful and consistent 
theory, according to which the rebellion must be put down and 
peace restored. But our dei^artcd President was too true a man 
to try any such quackery; too great a man to permit himself to 
be hampered by small and fine-spun theories; too earnest and 
good a man to dare trust himself, in such times of danger and 
trial, to any other measures than such as the providence of God 
might suggest. 

Some have thought, or pretended to think, that Mr. Lincoln 
was wanting in fixedness of j^i^iiTose; that he manifested hesita- 
tion and vacillation; but such persons, it is sure, do not under- 
stand the man, nor the princij^les by which he was governed: 
nor have they watched and carefully studied the course of events 
wliich mark his administration. It is true, he was ready to listen 
to advice from every quarter; was always open to conviction; 
was never so strongly in favor of any one plan as to jirevent 
his careful examination of any other that might be presented. 



18 

But when he came to a condusion, after he became satisfied of 
the expediency or necessity of a measure, his adhesion to it was 
invincible, — his determination to carry it into effect was as fixed 
and immovable as the decrees of Fate. He was as great in his 
volitive power as in his wisdom and his fiiith. What amount 
of pressure was brought to bear upon him to dissuade him from 
issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, to dissuade him from en- 
listing and organizing Negro troops, and to persuade him to 
ofier some terms of compromise and conciliation to the traitor 
chiefs. But he stood as firm as the everlasting hills against it 
all. Mr. Lincoln's volitive power was of the massive and pon- 
derous order. His will did not act quickly, — did not exhibit 
itself in the form of forceful and fierj^ energy and unpetuous re- 
solve, as is the case with men of smaller calibre; but, in its 
action, it took on the form of steadiness, persistence and firm- 
ness. It was presided over by prudence, and attended by cau- 
tion; and, therefore, while it did not burst forth in flashes of fiery 
energy, it put on a far nobler and grander manifestation in the 
calm and steady and irresistible force with which it moved on 
to the accomijlishment of its purposes. 

Honesty was a trait in his character which everybody be- 
held and admired. His enemies never called it in question. Nor 
was his honesty of that ordinary type which the common accep- 
tation of the word honesty is taken to represent. It was a grand 
and rugged honesty, befitting his great and manly soul. It dif- 
fused itself through his whole nature, and impressed itself upon 
the action of all his mental faculties. It imparted that noble sim- 
plicity of character for which he was so justly distinguished. He 
used no artifice, by which to appear better or greater than he 
was: he gave full license to all to look into his heart, and to 
read his motives and his principles. His honesty gave frankness 
to his manners. He sought to impose on no one by pompous 



19 

airs, and artificial loftiness of bearing. It imparted directness, clear- 
ness and precision to his thoughts, caused him to despise all sophis- 
try, and to go directly to the heart of every subject or question 
he was called to examine. It shone forth in his style of speech 
and writing, — inducing him always to say just what he meant, 
in the use of the fcAvest possible words, and those the most sim- 
ple and intelligible. Mr. Lincoln never deceived anybody, — save 
those who prated of his incajjacity and prophesied failure to his 
administration. He was honest with himself, honest towards the 
people, and even towards his enemies and the enemies of the 
country. He dared be honest even in diplomacy, where conceal- 
ment and deception are customary, and are deemed indispeusible 
to success. He kept faith with all the world, and fulfilled all 
his promises — even to the rebels. In the midst of j^eculation. 
fraud, and knavery, which great civil commotions always stimu- 
late to the highest pitch, he stood forth to relieve the scene, — 
an example of rugged, incorruptible honesty, inviting the public 
confidence and challenging the faith of the people. 

And his heart was as tender as it was incorruptible. His great 
soul Avas full of all charitable emotions, of all loving and kindly 
affections. He loved everything human. His charity embraced 
all mankind. His genial benevolence was always bubbling up 
and running over in kindly words and acts and cheerful humor. 
It thus became contagious, and diffused its benign influence 
through the social atmosphere of Washington, where secession 
hate and spleen have had unwonted license of expression; and 
where, as being the capital of the nation, the fierce and angry 
passions which war excites have seethed and boiled with intens- 
est fury. We may suppose it to be attributable, in good part, 
to the influence of the late President's great generosity of feel- 
ing, that the Northern temper, notwithstanding the weighty and 
multiplied provocations, has not heretofore burst the bounds of 



20 

self-control, and blazed forth in vengeful and consuming wrath 
against the Southern people and all the aiders and abettors of 
the vile Southern Treason. He set us an example of great good- 
nature which, it may be, we have been carrying to the extreme 
of weakness. It may be that his good-nature was the weak side 
of his own character. — If so, it was a virtuous weakness, and 
does not diminish at all our love and respect for him. Certain 
it is, that his kindliness of disposition rendered him incapable of 
any vindictive feelings, — any hatred towards a rival, or of re- 
venge towards an enemy. After the late Presidential election, 
when called on by citizens who came to congratulate him upon 
his grand popular triumph, he gave utterance to feelings which, 
in almost any other man, would have been regarded as ridicu- 
lous pretence, when he said that he could rejoice over no man's 
defeat, and was sorry that his election shoidd be the occasion of 
pain and disappointment to any. — But no one doubted the truth 
of this declaration as made by him. Whoever came to him with 
a complaint of injustice, or a plea for mercy, was siire to re- 
ceive an attentive and interested hearing, and went away with 
the conviction that his case would be candidly considered, and 
his request would be granted — if it were at all consistent or 
feasible. 

But all these great and amiable qualities of Mr. Lincoln did 
not secure him against vituperation and malignant abuse, — did 
not save him from the dastardly assault of the rebel assassin. 
Almost from the beginning of the contest, have the leading 
traitors and journals of the South delighted in maligning his 
character and traducing his name. They have spoken of this 
mildest and gentlest of men as an usurper and tyrant, — cruel, 
blood-thirsty, and implacable; a monster in human shape, — an 
ogre revelling in scenes of blood and fattening upon human gore. 
And thus have they sought to excite the disgust and hate of the 



21 

Southern people against him personally. And in this labor of 
love, they have been wonderfully aided by a class of journalists 
and politicians at the North, well and truly known as copper- 
heads. Do we not remember how these villians have continually 
charged him with violating the constitution, called him desi:)0t, 
and accused him of having designs upon the liberties of the peo- 
ple ? Some of them, even in our midst, have been wont to paint 
his personal character in the darkest and most loathsome colors, 
— describing him as an inhuman monster, who called for ribald 
songs to be sung among the dead and wounded on the battle- 
field of Antietam, and held an Irish wake over the glorious dead 
who fell at the battle of Gettysburg, That this base and cause- 
less malignity manifested towards him by Northern men, encour- 
aged and intensified Southern hatred of his person and character, 
can not for a moment be doubted. And who shall say that cop- 
perheads, North, are not as responsible for his murder, as rebels, 
South ? Woiild not the Southern traitors be naturally led to 
suppose, that the death of a President so despotic, and so in- 
tensely hated by men in the loyal States, was " a consummation 
devoutly to be wished," and Avoiild be hailed with joy, by them? 
The blood of our departed President does not rest on the souls 
of Southern traitors alone. 

That his murder was inspired by political animosity, and is 
justly chargeable upon those who inaugurated the rebellion and 
have given it aid and comfort, is evident enough. That a jDolit- 
ical motive led to this deed of horror, is clearly made known by 
the words of the assassin, sic semper tyrannis, as he leaped forth 
before the astonished assembly at the theatre with the theatrical 
flourish of his dagger. And there is proof conclusive that the 
plot included the assassination of all the heads of the govern- 
ment and the incomparable chief of our army. And surely no 
motive of private and personal revenge could adequately account 



22 

for so extensive a scheme of murder. We are, then, shut up to 
the conclusion that rebel malignity inspired the deed. And this 
conclusion is strengthened by many other facts and proofs. It 
was proposed to assassinate Mr. Lincoln immediately before his 
first inauguration, while on his way to the capital; and the skill 
and jjrecaution of Gen. Scott alone prevented. Southern organs 
of treason have threatened and recommended the assassination of 
the President and his chief advisers, time and again, since the 
war began ; and rewards have been offered by them to those 
who would carry it into execution. Since Richmond was cap- 
tured, papers have been discovered belonging to the archives of 
the rebel government containing the organization of a Secret Ser- 
vice Bureau, and a new and secret method of carrying on the 
war: and we may proj)erly regard the murder of the President 
and the attempted murder of the chief inen of the State, together 
with the raids upon the towns and villages of our Northern 
frontier and the plots that have been discovered for burning our 
princif)al cities, as the outcropping and development of this New 
Method of rebel warfare. We trace, then, this horrible crime 
back to the traitor leaders and their coadjutors, and hold them 
responsible for it. Doiibtless, as soon as it may conveniently be 
done, those Northern journalists who used to vie with their 
" Southern brethren " in abusing and aspersing Mr. Lincoln when 
living, will hasten to the rescue of their Confederate brothers, 
and seek to shield them from the storm of righteous indignation 
now gathering from every j^oiut of the compass, by endeavoring 
to show that this crime was committed by irresponsible parties 
who had no connection with, or encouragement from, the traitor 
chiefs, — In consistency, they are bound to do their Southern 
confreres this favor. We shall look for it, and shall know pre- 
cisely what construction to put upon it. 

Dark as is this crime, and disastrous as it now seems to us, 



23 

God is able to turn it to good account and cause such conse- 
quences to flow from it as shall contribute to the advantage of 
the national cause. Though Ave may esteem the death of our 
beloved Chief Magistrate, who managed our affairs with such 
consummate skill during the jDast period of greatest peril, a great 
calamity, an irreparable loss, in the Providence of God it may 
be made to bring upon us untold and unlooked for blessings. 
Even now, with all our blindness and short-sightedness, we can 
see and anticipate certain beneficial results, to lighten our bur- 
den of grief and reconcile us to the ways and dealings of Prov- 
idence. 

In this fiendish murder, is revealed to all eyes the nature of 
that spirit which is the animus of the Rebellion, — that dark, 
fell spirit of hate, revenge, cruelty and savagery, which gave rise 
to secession and has actuated those engaged in it. We now un- 
derstand the temper, principles and motives of the men who have 
risen up and made war upon the government, better than ever 
before. The thin covering of chivalric pretension is now entirely 
removed from the Southern slaveholders' character, and we get 
a fair, full view of the brutality and barbarism which is engen- 
dered by the ownership and traffic in the bodies and souls of 
men. It is true, we had enough to open our eyes to all this 
before: but we were slow to learn. The savagery of Southern 
slaveholding society had displayed itself for long years, in the 
maltreatment and murder of Northern citizens traveling in the 
slave States; in brutal assaults upon Northern statesmen in Con- 
gressional Halls; and in the hunting and hanging of clergymen 
who belonged to churches that did not endorse the divinity of 
slavery. What, indeed, could Ave look for but savagery in an 
aristocracy founded upon man-ownership, — that grew rich by 
the exposure and sale of its own offspring in the market, and 
had full license to gratify its vilest passions on defenceless women ? 



24 

Look, too, at instances of Southern fiendislmess and ci'uelty to 
be found in the history of this war: the mutilation of our dead; 
the systematic and cold-blooded murder of our soldiers taken 
prisoners, by confinement in loathsome prisons, by slow starva- 
tion and their wanton exposure to heat and cold ; and the whole- 
sale massacre of our Negro troops taken in arms ! Surely, we 
have had enough all along to give us an insight into Southern 
slaveholding character, and have received insult and injury enough 
from it heretofore to " stir a fever in the blood of age." But it 
took this crowning act of infamy fully to open our eyes, and en- 
able us thoroughly to understand the men with whom we have 
to deal. — And this is a great thing gained. We shall now know 
precisely what measures to adopt, and what terms of " reconcil- 
iation " and " compromise " to propose in the pending settlement 
of the controversy. 

And this opening of our eyes must tend to a more complete 
union of our hearts in opposing treason and sustaining the gov- 
ernment. As we abominate murder ; as we hate the cruelty and 
brutal passions which characterize savage life, we must all rally 
now more closely around the standard of the Republic, which, 
in this contest, represents not only civil liberty, but Christian 
culture and civilization. From this time forth to the close 
of the war, all Christian, moral, upright, decent men will consti- 
tute one party, — the party of the government and the Union. 
No divisions will longer exist among the People. The murder of 
the President will bring all patriotic citizens upon the same plat- 
form, — the platform of his principles and policy. It would have 
been better had we all been united from the first, and together 
given our hearty sujDport to the government and the war. But 
I am ready to concede that many honest and well-meaning citi- 
zens have hitherto been misled by the influence of party names, 
the prestige of partizan leaders, and the persistent misrepresenta- 



25 

tions and falsehoods of party journals. It is a pity that their 
disenthralment and conversion should have been so long deferred, 
and should now be effected by so deplorable a cause ; but we 
M'ill receive them with open arms; and henceforth, to the con- 
clusion of the war, the people of the loyal States will be one. 
But there is a certain class of politicians among us whom we 
hope the loyal citizens of the country will never take into fel- 
lowship, whatever may be their jDrofessions of faith or pretended 
reformation of life. Their views and feelings will remain im- 
changed, however they may now for a time veer their course to 
adjust themselves to the changed condition of the public mind. 
It is imj^ossible for intelligent and influential men, who have from 
the beginning of our troubles taken sides with the enemies of 
the Republic, — villified the administration; cried out against co- 
ercion; opposed volunteering and drafting; demanded compro- 
mise and virtual surrender to the rebels in arms; described in 
glowing terms the prowess, resources and military strength of 
the Confederacy, and expatiated ui^on the weakness, bankruptcy 
and demoralization of the government; magnified rebel victories, 
and mimified Union triumphs; and in every way possible — ex- 
cept by exjDlicit declaration — have manifested their sympathy for 
the traitors and their wish that they might succeed; — it is im- 
possible, I say, for such men ever to become genuine patriots 
and entitled to the confidence and countenance of honest, loyal 
citizens. They may take up the strains of eulogy and unite with 
the rest of i;s in praising the virtues of the departed Patriot and 
Leader, whom tliey have hitherto been constantly employed in 
abusing: this will cost them nothing; and, besides, by now prais- 
ing the dead President, they will gain a stand-point from whence 
hereafter they can assail the living one to greater advantage. In 
deference to the general sorrow, they also may profess to deplore 
his death and execrate the villainy of his " taking ofi"; " but in 



26 

their secret heart they rejoice; and when time shall have reduced 
the keenness and poignancy of the public grief, so that they shall 
think it safe to disclose their feelings, they will express their 
satisfaction by hint and inuendo, and the citation of historic in- 
stances as parallels in which retribution has been visited, in a 
similar manner, upon wicked and oppressive rulers. But as the 
Rebel Commissioner of exchange remarked, when the assassina- 
tion of the President was announced to him, " That is the hard- 
est blow the Confederacy has yet had," so these Northern trait- 
ors will find that it is the hardest blow they have yet received. 
It deprives them of influence over any respectable portion of the 
American people, and will prevent them hereafter from plying 
their villainous occupation with any degree of success. 

Anotlier result to be desired and hoped for from this murder 
of the President, is an aAvakening and stimulation of the moral 
sense, the conscience, the sense of righteousness, of the nation. 
The leading feature of this shocking transaction, is its extreme 
wickedness. It strikes every one as an awful and unmitigated 
crime. It aj^peals directly to the moral sensibilities of the popu- 
lar heart, and, like an electric shock, quickens them into activity 
and causes them to feel how clearly just and right it is that 
punishment should be meted out to the perj^etrators of it. And, 
with our moral feelings thus quickened into activity, as we trace 
back this crime to its inspiring cause, we and the whole joeople 
are better prepared to realize the transcendent criminality of the 
rebellion, the diabolical wickedness of the traitors who urged 
and have carried it on, and the full measure of punishment which 
they deserve. 

The people of this nation needed some such quickening of 
their moral instincts and sensibilities. From the beginning of 
the Rebellion, we had too lightly regarded, too much overlooked, 
the criminality of its authors and abettors. "VVe had too exclu- 



27 

sively contemplated the war upon the government in its politi- 
cal aspects, and had too generally lost sight of its moral charac- 
ter and bearings. The war, as begun by the slaveholders, had 
assumed in our thoughts the appearance of a contest for great 
ideas and j^^'iiiciples, rather than a causeless and wicked insur- 
rection, a conspiracy of abandoned and desperate men, actuated 
by devilish ambition, to overthrow the government and seat 
themselves in places of 2>ower. Treason we had regarded too 
much as a mere difference of political opinion, and not enough as 
an enormous crime against society. And since our recent great 
victories, which indicate a virtual end of the war and the speedy 
incoming of settlement and ^^^icification, justice and judgment 
seemed still farther to be lost sight of by the peo2:)le. Exhilara- 
ted by the splendid triumphs of our arms, and overjoyed with 
the prospects of a wished -for peace, we were ready to shake 
hands with the world all around; almost disposed to forgive the 
vile and perjured and bloodstained traitors who had brought 
all our calamities upon us, and take them to our loving embrace 
as erring prodigals and misguided brethren. And this reckless 
generosity, this criminal magnanimity, was being stimulated and 
applauded by many influential loyal men who were connected 
with the press and thus enjoyed superior facilities for reaching 
the public ear and affecting popular opinion. Many such men 
were advocating an indiscriminate forgiveness of the Rebels, high 
and low. We can hardly conceive how any truly loyal men 
could be betrayed into tendei'ing such advice and counsel as this, 
however much their kindly feelings might have been excited by 
the prospects of immediate peace. That those among us who have 
always sympathized with the traitors, have argued for them and (" 
defended them from the ojioet' , should now plead for mercy to l)'^ 
be shown them, is natural and Avhat we might expect. In their 
estimation, the Southern Treason is no crime, and therefore 



28 

should not be punished. They have always claimed that the 
slaveholders were in the right; and they can now consistently 
claim for them exemption from the jienalties of the law. But 
that any earnest, sincere patriot could plead for mercy to be 
shown them, is a marvel past our comprehension. 

Political society is organized on the idea of Justice, not Mer- 
cy. It is the grand function of civil government to execute the 
immutable princii^les of moral righteousness among men. — God 
has ordained it for this end, and empowered it with this prero- 
gative. It is intended by Him to be "a terror to evil-doers, 
and a praise to them that do well." When the sovereign power 
of a state is not directed by justice, it ceases to exercise the 
proper functions of government ; — it is no longer a legitimate 
power, and does not afford real protection to society. Tliat 
ruler " bears the sword in vain " who intei'poses his prerogative 
to screen the guilty. Mercy is well, in its place; but, in the 
realm of Law, mercy must be held in abeyance, and Justice 
must bear sway. God himself does not show mei'cy to hardened 
and unrepenting criminals: and shall we be required to be more 
merciful than He? "Justice and judgment are the habitation 
of His throne." And, in the administration of his government 
among the children of men, He overlooks not the claims of 
Justice any more than of mercy. In the redemptive scheme He 
devised for fillen man, he required satisfaction to be made to 
the demands of the violated law ; and, even with the gift of his 
Son, he only pardons on the condition of repentance and works 
meet for repentance. He has never set us an example of indis- 
criminate forgiveness. To those who rebelled in heaven, and 
sought to overthrow the foundations of his righteous govern- 
ment, he never granted any pardon at all, on any terms. — And 
the crime of the Southern leaders is similar, and its punishment 
ought to be alike inexorable. These traitors are guilty of the 



29 

highest crime known to human law. They undertook to destroy 
the life of the nation, to overthrow the government itself, in 
which the interests, the property and lives of us all are bound 
up. The Republic is the embodiment of the will, the intelligence, 
the heart and soul of the people; it is a colossal man, made up 
of and including in itself all the citizens of the country : and, by 
seeking to slay the Republic, the Southern traitors have struck 
at the liberty and life of every citizen. And their guilt is pro- 
portionate to the reach and comprehension of the intended mur- 
der. They who cry mercy for them, are, wittingly or otherwise, 
enemies to the state. To pardon their crime would be treason 
to civil justice; to remit their penalty, would be a gross outrage 
on public law; to let them go free, would be to give license to 
every species of disorder, and to unsettle the very foundations 
of political society. Expediency, no less than legal righteous- 
ness, demands their punishment. The People, as says President 
Johnson, need to be taught that Treason is a crime, the highest 
of crimes. It is necessary that these great villians should be 
executed according to law, in order to impress upon the public 
consciousness the idea that Justice is the basis of the state, — not 
mere popular opinion, or the platforms of parties, — and that 
none can lay their sacrilegious hands on the ark of our safety 
and liberty with impunity. 

Shall they, who participate in the murder of a single indi- 
vidual, be punished without mercy, and these Southern leaders, 
who are responsible for the murder of every man who has fallen 
in battle on either side since the war began, be allowed to es- 
cape? Must the wretched Beall and the miserable Kennedy, who 
were commissioned by Jeff. Davis, and but executed his com- 
mands, be tried and hung, and Jeif. Davis himself have the 
sceptre of forgiveness held out to him in advance ? Submit this 
question of clemency to the hosts of ghostly men who, in the 



30 

wreck of their manhood, have been recently returned to then- 
friends after long months of confinement in Southern pens and 
dungeons, where they were being slowly and surely starved to 
death; submit it to the widows and orphans of our slain soldiers; 
submit it to the hunted, persecuted, destitute, and homeless 
Union refugees from the revolted States; and what would be the 
response ? And shall the wrongs and outrages endured by these 
be forgotten? Shall the government refuse to redress their 
wrongs upon the guilty perpetrators, moved by a false pliilan- 
thropy, a spurious sentiment of charity and mercy? 

Some good people have professed a degree of sympathy for 
Gen. Lee, and expressed a hope that he at least might be ex- 
empted from punishment. Can they tell why ? Has he not been 
as great a traitor as the worst of them? Was he not bound to 
the government by the most sacred obligations, — having been 
educated at the public expense, and honored and trusted by the 
government all his days ? Was he not, at the outbreak of Re- 
bellion, an officer iu our army, and sworn to uphold the Con- 
stitution and laws of the country ? And has he not been the 
chief support and stay of confederate Treason for more than two 
years past ? Why, tlien, should he be excepted ? Is it because 
lie has displayed great skill and abilities as a military chieftain ? 
— All the worse for him, and for the country he had sworn to 
defend. The greater his talents, the greater his guilt. 

Some have thought Stevens to be a proper subject of 
executive pardon. For myself, I must say that my hatred of 
his treason is hightened by my contempt for his cowardice 
and hypocrisy. Though he disapproved of secession, he had 
not the courage to hold to his convictions and breast the 
tide of lire-eating phrensy. Against the dictates of his own 
judgment and conscience, he yielded to the clamors of the 
mob; and consented to give in his adhesion to the Confederacy 



31 

— bought up by the offer of the rebel Yice-presidency. A more 
despicable traitor than he is not to be found in the Avhole South. 
He ought to be hung for his meanness and perfidy — if for noth- 
ing else. 

It is due to history, and to civilized society throughout the 
world, that we should, in dealing with tliis whole pack of guilty 
leaders, set an example of even-handed and impartial justice. It 
has usually been the case in all the past and under other gov- 
ernments, that tlie greatest villians have escaped, and that retri- 
bution has fallen upon the less conspicuous and hardly responsi- 
ble offenders. Let our free and Christian Republic reverse this 
order, by visiting condign punishment iipon the traitor chiefs, 
while generously extending forgiveness to the common people of 
the South who have been at once their dupes and victims. 

And while insisting upon punishment being meted out to the 
guilty, let us not forget the leading copperheads of the North^ 
These men, who, without any of the motives that were brought 
to bear upon the minds of Southern people, and impelled by 
sheer love of wickedness, have turned against their country in 
her peril and given all the support to the rebellion which their 
dastardly natures would permit, deserve to be driven from the 
land, which they disgrace by their presence, and whose institu- 
tions they are morally incapable of appreciating. If they are al- 
lowed to remain, the least exaction that can in justice be laid 
upon them, is, retraction of their treasonable and malignant ut- 
terances, humble confession before the people of their secret col- 
lusion with the authors of the gi-eat conspiracy, and silence and 
circumspection forever after. 

Already are there evidences that the assassination of Mr. Lin- 
coln has awakened the public mind to a juster appreciation of 
the great crime of rebellion which induced his assassination, and 
aroused the popular resolve to the determination to visit jaunish- 



32 

ment upon the traitors, both North and South. And if this, to- 
gether with tlie other benefits to which we liave adverted, shall 
follow as the providential result of the murder of our beloved 
President, then will he be happy in having been permitted to 
serve his country as much by his death as by his life. 

While, therefore, we grieve for his loss, we sorrow not as 
those without hope. The Republic still lives; and, by the guid- 
ing hand of Providence, the calamity we deplore shall bring it 
more speedily into the enjoyment of permanent and righteous 
peace. Having dejiosited the honored ashes of our dead Presi- 
dent in their last resting-place, — having shed our tears and said 
our requiem over his grave, with more steady resolve, with more 
inflexible purpose, with more reliant faith in God, will we return 
to eno-age in the work of reconstructing the Union, and to aid 
our brave and patriotic living President in carrying out his 
already expressed design to rid the country of Treason and 
Traitors. 



'IQ 



